DECORAH, Iowa  – The Luther College volleyball team played most of the 2022 season away from the comforts of Regents Center. The Norse closed their five-match homestand and played their final regular season match of the season in Decorah Wednesday night, hosting (RV) Wartburg College in the final American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) match of 2022. Though Luther battled, the Norse came up short against the Knight, falling in straight sets 3-0 ( 15-25, 18-25, 18-25). With the loss, Luther's overall record stands at 6-20 with a 1-7 mark in A-R-C play. 

BY THE NUMBERS
The Norse were every bit as scrappy and hungry as they've been in past matches, as they gave (RV) Wartburg all it could handle in the first half. In fact, Luther put together its first impressive rally down 7-3, as the Nose rattled off three straight points to cut the deficit to 7-6. Tough serves from Kyah Olson-Sola (Northfield, Minn. / Northfield) forced the Knights out of rotation and into three consecutive attack errors. However, Luther struggled on the ensuing serve receive rotation, as Wartburg was able to regain a seven point lead, jumping ahead 14-7. 

The Norse tried to mount a comeback, but was never able to close the gap, falling in the first set 25-15. Luther held an early lead in the second, once again using a furious serving run by Olson-Sola, to take a 7-6 lead in the set. Even though the Knights regained the advantage one point later, the Norse stayed within three points of their opponent, cutting the lead to 12-10 on back-to-back kills from Zoe Verhey (Dassel, Minn. / Dassel-Cokato). Again, a tough serve receive rotation led to another big Wartburg run, allowing the visitors to take a 2-0 lead in the match with a 25-18 win in the second set. 

Again, Luther came out firing in the third set and hung with the Knights point-for-point through the early stages. In fact, the Norse led 10-9 at one point before another Wartburg run made it 13-10. Once again, Luther went on a rally, using kills by Sarina Stortz (Mabel, Minn. / Mabel-Canton) to cut the lead to 13-12 and swing the momentum to the home side. Unfortunately, the momentum couldn't hold, as the Knights red-hot offense propelled the visitors to a 25-18 third set victory and a 3-0 (15-25, 18-25, 18-25) win in the match. 

TOP NORSE

• Sarina Stortz (Mabel, Minn. / Mabel-Canton) tallied double-digit kills for the third consecutive match, closing Wednesday's contest with 10 total and a .409 hitting percentage. 
• Sophomore libero Kyah Olson-Sola (Northfield, Minn. / Northfield) was credited with 19 digs in the match and was the lone student-athlete with double-digit kills. 
• Emma Kowalczyk (Colgate, Wis. / Catholic Memorial) recorded 18 assists. 

UP NEXT
The Norse will close out the 2022 season at the Stuphen Invitational, hosted by Central College in Pella, Iowa. Luther will open the tournament on Saturday, October 29 with a 11:00 a.m. CT match against Monmouth College. The Norse will also play Westminster College at 3:00 p.m. on the same day. 

For all the latest on Luther Volleyball, stay tuned to luthernorse.com and follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.